It’s a big week for VR sports gaming

Sports gaming took a major leap forward this week with the announcement of the NBA 2KVR Experience and Xbox One game streaming for Oculus Rift, bringing gamers unprecedented levels of immersion and interactivity through the latest technology in virtual reality.

The NBA 2KVR Experience builds on the highly popular NBA 2K video game series and represents the first virtual reality NBA game, releasing on 22 November on VR hardware platforms Samsung Gear VR, PlayStation VR and HTC Vive.

Players take the court alongside Indiana Pacers star forward Paul George, making their way through mini-games and shooting exercises on the recreated floor of the Pacers’ home stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

“As a lifelong fan of NBA 2K, it’s exciting to see them take the leap into VR, and even more exciting that it’ll be on my home court,” said Paul George in a press release.

Not to be outdone, Xbox announced this week that Oculus Rift owners will be able to stream Xbox One games onto their Oculus Rift headsets via Windows 10 beginning 12 December, building on a partnership that has seen an Xbox One controller bundled with every Oculus Rift unit.

Just in time for the holidays, the app that enables the device connectivity will be available for free. In addition to leading titles such as “Gears of War” and “Halo,” sports fans can rejoice as Xbox’s announcement promised that “Forza Motorsport” and the “biggest sports games” will be streamable through Oculus.

Xbox and NBA 2K’s announcements only days apart amount to one of the most exciting weeks in sports gaming, a field that has been bolstered by recent improvements in computing power, graphics capabilities and now the emergence of virtual reality. It was only a few years ago that the most radical evolution in sports gaming was the ability to control a single player in FIFA. Under developments in VR, the possibilities for immersive sports gaming are now limitless.

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